OVALS AT BREAKING POINT
TOM BOSWELL’S SPECIAL REPORT
SUNS chairman Tony Cochrane has declared a stunning 20 new ovals need to be created in southeast Queensland in the next five years to keep up with the growth of Australian rules football in the region.
The AFL recorded a staggering 265,760 participants in 2018, up 5.2 per cent, and it’s expected to surpass that figure again in 2019.
Twenty-eight football ovals were built across southeast Queensland and the NSW Northern Rivers in the previous five years while six more are being constructed now.
Cochrane said the growth showed the value of having AFL clubs like Gold Coast and Brisbane in Queensland while reinforcing the commitment of the AFL to their cause.
“The AFL Commission, the AFL and the clubs in Queensland are true testimony to the time and ongoing effort to grow our great indigenous game in Queensland,” Cochrane said.
“Funding is one thing but our total commitment is very strong – the best I’ve ever seen.
“The AFL are in this for the long haul – if it takes 25 years, so be it – but collectively we are going to build our Australian game right here.”
Cochrane said the biggest issue facing the game in the Sunshine State was getting access to the space that was needed to cater for the huge increase in participants.
Aspiring players would struggle to find a grassy patch to kick the footy if nothing was done in coming years.
“The belief is we are going to require at least 20 new ovals coming on stream in southeast Queensland over the next five years,” Cochrane said.
The game’s greatest boom is happening in female football.
The number of female community footy teams has gone from 118 in 2015 to 157 in 2016 and 251 in 2018. That’s 133 more female teams in the space of three years.
Thirty schools in southeast Queensland have also installed goalposts to help ease the problem and cater for the popular Auskick program.